In a painstaking process this alternate history storyline has been researched and is presented for your entertainment.
By using historical documents from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff we know exactly what the contingency plans were in the case of an expected Soviet attack in 1946.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

This was the day they were all waiting for: the testing of new weapons, developed from the plans captured in Germany last year. This test will involve the test-firing of a drastically redesigned copy of the German Sturmgewehr-44, using a version of .30-'06 ammunition shortened to an overall length of 40mm, and a milled receiver for this test model, but to have a stamped receiver, if it passes muster. They need this to work succeed, to counter the Soviets' new semi-automatic rifle, the Simonov SKS, now being captured from Soviet soldiers, along the Pyrenees Line.

In attendance is the U.S. Army's Chief of Ordinance, Lieutenant General Levin Hicks Campbell, Jr., brought out of retirement and promoted, to oversee the weapons development of captured German plans and materials. On the other side of the base, off in the distance, he can hear the screams of rocket artillery being launched, improved and redesigned versions of the German Raketenwerfer and Nebelwerfer systems. Only, these versions carry a newly-developed, nasty, payload: air-bursting cluster sub-munitions. It was akin to launching a box of grenades, and having them blow up right over the enemy's head. Very nasty stuff, indeed. But this war had to be particularly nasty: the American way of life and freedom was truly at stake now...

Finally! The armorers are bringing out the rifles, designated T46A1, for the test. General Campbell still can't get over Buck Rogers-look of this rifle, but it may be one the only things that gets our asses out of this sling. In attendance with the General and his trusted staff, are the design staff that were able to be brought back here in Operation Paperclip and Paperclip II: former DWM-Mauser AG engineers, Edmund Heckler, Theodor Koch and Alex Seidle, along with the chief designer of the Belgian Fabrique National de Herstal, Dieudonne Saive; they are here to observe the results of the test-firing, and improve the fruit of their collaboration, if need be.

The test rifles will be fired in graduations of 100 yards, up to 500 yards. Since this “assault rifle” was not meant to be used outside the 300-yard range, positive results were not expected in the 400- and 500-yard ranges. As the armorers fired the weapons, the designers could see that the rifles were stable, when fired from the shoulder and from the hip, the armorers were able to stay on target, or switch targets, with no apparent trouble. As soon as the firing ended, the firing range manager looked at the targets carefully, and soon declared that the rifles had consistently hit bulls eye, 96 out of 100 times, up to the 400-yard mark. This accuracy was even beyond the engineers wildest expectations. They now had an assault rifle suitable to present to President Truman, for his approval.

General Campbell congratulated the four engineers, leaving them all smiles, as he was ushered to his jeep, where his driver waited to take him to the rocket-artillery range, where he could witness the results of what the artillery men were now calling “Truman's Organs”. Bet that bastard, Uncle Joe, will get big surprise out of that...

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

23 September 1946War Plan ProposalOffice of the Chief of Staff to the Commander in ChiefU.S. Department of War

Subject: Opening the Second Front through Asia

These are the recommendations of the OCSCC, presented with the concurrence of the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Army Air Force and Strategic Air Command, and the Chief of Naval Operations.

This is the outline of what is tentatively called War Plan Red:

1. Proposed: A conference to create an Asian mutual defense treaty, similar in scope and objective as NATO.

2. Proposed: Movement of 6th U.S. Army from the Presidio, San Francisco, U.S.A. to relieve the 8thU.S. Army from occupation duties on the Japanese Home Islands, to be relocated, half to India, and we have been invited by the Filipino government to station the other half of that army to the newly independent nation of the Republic of the Philippines, while they stand up their army from the Filipino cadre of the U.S. 12th Infantry Division (Philippine Scouts) and fight the communist Hukbalahap insurgents. Further movement is recommended into China, as conditions permit.

3. Proposed: As manpower becomes available, it is recommended that 2 new field armies and an airborne corps be created (provisionally designated 10th U.S. Army, 14th U.S. Army and U.S. XXIII Airborne Corps) for use in the Far East Theater of Operations.

4. Proposed: Military co-operation with the paramililtary units of the CIA in Asia, especially in the arming and training of indigenous paramililtary forces, such as scouts or rangers. Highly successful examples of this are the Chin and Kachin Rangers, and the Free Thai Scouts, etc. There is a consensus that Detachment 101 should be re-established toward this end.

5. Proposed: Military training missions to train the newly established Indian Army, from the remains of the British India Army, and the new armies of Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. In Vietnam and Cambodia, there are large numbers of indigenous former Legionnaires of the French Foreign Legion who will, with the anti-Japanese resistance fighters, form the nucleus of these new armies. Some of these Legionnaires even command special skills (Parachutistes, Commandos Marin, etc.) that would serve well in this theater of battle. Also of special interest are the large number of British-trained paratroopers, commandoes and Special Air Service-type members of the Indian Military, who can be used as surrogates to train Asian troops and Special Units, and the possible creation of an Inter-Allied Special Forces Command in the Far East theater.

6. Proposed: Neutralization of Communist forces in Asia, including, but not limited to, the Chinese Communist Party, the Hukbalahap insugents in the Philippines, and other communist insurgent movements in Ceylon, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. To this end, it is recommended that 4thRanger Battalion be attached to the part of the 8th U.S. Army that is in India and the 6thRanger Battalion be attached to the part of the 8th U.S. Army stationed in the Philippines.

7. Proposed: When all areas of operation have been stabilized and all other threats have been neutralized, implementation of the plan for the invasion of the Siberian and Central Asian Soviet Union (initially codenamed OPERATION GENGHIS KHAN) will commence. X-Day planned for late-May to early-June, 1947.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Previously: Javier, Miguel and Dominic, volunteers for NATO’s expeditionary force in Spain, have been rescued from Communist partisans by the Western powers’ elite partisan hunters ... the Waffen-SS. *

Episode 7

Late September 1946Northern Spain

Former Waffen-SS Standartenführer, Graf Franz von Jäger, looked at his adjudant with cold, clear eyes that did not betray a single hint of emotion:

“Should we tell them, Diego?”

von Jäger nodded towards the tent opening – out of which they could see Javier, Miguel and Dominic, who were huddled around a small fire in a clearing in the woods. It was a grim, cloudy morning in the mountains and everything had been soaked during a heavy rainfall at night.

They had had to move fast yesterday, retreating back from the valley and up into the forest, in order not to be caught in the open by several waves of Sturmoviks, presumably out of Toulouse. They had changed camp site several times already and Jäger had commanded that they be ready to move again at a moment’s notice. So this camp was very primitive, even by partisan hunters’ standards. Inside the commander’s tent, however, everything was dry and in perfect order. As always.

“They will need to know soon,” Diego replied after having thought about it. He was a small, quiet Spaniard and he seldom spoke without having chosen his words carefully. “We are very near the front – where their regiment is supposed to be.”

von Jäger nodded sombrely: “Yes … supposed to be.”

Since they had succeeded in eliminating the core of Pablo Mendoza’s Nuevo Frente Popular partisans, including Mendoza himself, Jäger had not thought much about what to do with the three Latin American volunteers they had rescued. They had to go back to their regiment, of course. But this morning’s disturbing news from Laruns had changed things. However, if they could not go back, would they have to stay? And if they stayed would they become a help or … a problem?

The hunt had exceeded expectations so far. Months of cultivating new, invaluable informers had borne fruit. NATO’s 1st Army HQ in Bilbao had all the opportunity for plausible denial that the weaklings needed – that is, when it came to gloss over that ‘unfortunate’ leak of information which tipped off Mendoza’s partisans about the Overseas Volunteers column; which allowed the partisans to place those landmines in a very predictable right spot at a very predictable time.

All Jäger had had to do was to follow the column at a distance, keep a look-out, and then have some of his most experienced ‘shadows’ follow the raiding group back to the hideout which he had been getting ever closer to these past 3 months – but without actually finding it. From then on it was just a matter of springing the trap.

As expected there had been several larger NFP units camped in a jagged mountain area, not far from the El Portalet border crossing. They had chosen the area because they felt safe. After verifying their locations Jäger had divided his own men into 3 squads, making sure each had superiority in both numbers and weapons. Then he had struck.

A delightful bonus was that in one of the partisan groups Mendoza himself had been present. A not so delightful bonus had been to find NATO prisoners alive in that group. Yes, Corporal Genscher had reported that the partisans pulled some bodies from the wreckage of the truck which had fallen into the ravine, but Jäger had dismissed this as the usual partisan tactic of saving a few enemy bodies for convincing sabotage attacks in the coming days.

In fact, yesterday there had been a particularly nasty one near a large NATO check point outside Pamplona. The only live human being in the ‘provisions truck’ which had been the last to be checked - had been one of the NFP “Heroés”, as the suicide attackers were allowed to title themselves. The other three uniformed men, two on the truck bed amongst the rations boxes stuffed with explosives and one in the front, were apparently captured bodies of NATO soldiers that had been propped up. Or at least that was the conclusion post-investigation. There wasn’t much left ...

“Do you think our three guests will ask … questions about the ambush?” Jäger asked Diego softly. But it was a superficial softness that did little to hide the deadly resolve that was always directly underneath.

“They are only common soldiers, Colonel … ” Diego began slowly, then held his tongue for a few seconds to gauge Jäger’s reaction.

Diego Estevez had fought under Jäger’s command in the last days of Berlin with the Spanische-Freiwilligen Kompanie der SS 101 which had been attached to 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division Nordland;but unlike von Jäger he was content to keep his ‘translated’ NATO-rank of lieutenant - and wear the full uniform to show it. It annoyed Jäger somewhat but he chose not to make an issue of it. Times had changed.

“Considering the fate of their regiment this morning,” Diego finally continued - after having decided how best to ‘handle’ Jäger this time - “I think they will soon have other things on their mind than thinking about why that ambush happened – which I don’t think they would think too much about anyway! As I said, they are just soldiers. And sometimes there … is an ambush.”

“Yes,” Jäger said, but more to himself than to Diego, “but then there is still the small matter of what we should do with them now. We could send them back to Bilbao, of course – or up to General Allen. But I wonder if we have exhausted all the possibilities … ”

“What other possibilities are there, Colonel?”

“Jimenez and Nijmegen will not recover from that skirmish the other day, will they?”

“The doctor says no.”

“Then we are two men short. And it doesn’t look like our little war is over anytime soon, does it?”

“No,” Diego concurred, feeling slightly tired from standing (Jäger had not once asked him to sit down, although Diego had been in the tent for half an hour now). “The Bolsheviks have had extraordinary luck these first five months. Or they have been too well-prepared - or both. And if it’s going to be the last war the Western Allies will ever fight - they had better get their act together – and use all means necessary to win it. As we did.”

“And even that was not enough,” Jäger remarked, and for the first time a hint of a smile betrayed itself on his lips “ - when Berlin was in flames and the Führer was dead.”

Diego was about to say something more, but Jäger raised himself from his chair and walked past him, without a word, ducked through the tent opening and went out into the clearing.

Diego followed, as he was supposed to do. But he couldn’t help looking forward to it. After all, he knew Jäger so well now that he had almost guessed what the commander had decided about the poor bastards out there …

*

“Buenos dias, amigos,” Jäger greeted the three men in heavily accented Spanish (he had never bothered to learn the language). Diego quickly came to his side and began translating as Jäger went on in German:

“I’m afraid I have some bad news for you … This morning I received a message that the 5thOverseas Volunteers Regiment was sent over to Laruns just in time to fend off an enemy attempt to break through. They fought heroically and stopped the Bolsheviks. They also lost about 75 per cent of their men. The remainders have been transferred to shore up other under-strength NATO divisions - elsewhere on the Sherman Line.”

He paused and watched the three soldiers' reaction. They stared back at him with an expression of incomprehension, almost bordering on fear; as if he had just told them they themselves were about to be shot by Bolsheviks. In fact, they had – circumstances permitting - been treated quite well these past many days which they had been with Jäger’s men.

“This … is true?” Dominic asked with some difficulty. He still wore heavy bandage around the head and arm and field surgeon Mihailovic had been very cautious when his prospects for returning to duty. It was annoying, Jäger had thought, that they had to go through so much trouble for a nigger but as Diego kept reminding him: Times had changed.

And so, for now, Jäger forced himself to nod in response to Dominic’s question, recognizing his presence:

“It is true,” he confirmed.

Javier and Miguel looked briefly at each other. Miguel snorted and looked down again, and crossed his arms tightly, as if he had even been expecting this - and as if his regiment’s failure to survive the onslaught of what was probably a vastly superior force of Soviets was somehow a personal insult.

Javier just felt empty inside. He had already had his share of troubles accepting that they had, in fact, been rescued by these … men.

“What do we do then?” he finally said, quietly, as if it was more a question to himself than directed particularly at von Jäger.

The former SS-officer, however, understood Javier quite well - even before the translation. He smiled fleetingly for the second time today:

“You don’t have to worry about that, young man. I can always use new interpreters. So from this moment on consider yourself part of NATO’s Anti-Partisan Unit I.”

The three Latinos stared at Jäger in dumbfound silence.

“You should be quite happy,” Jäger offered, “You will be fighting with an elite cadre of soldiers – all handpicked by our American allies.”

“But …” Javier began, while scrambling to his feet “ - you are not in authority to -”

Jäger stepped very close to Javier and the glare of his cold, white eyes made the young man shiver involuntarily: “Wrong. I am the only authority in these mountains, amigo. This is my land and I draft any men that I need to carry out my mission.”

“Could you at least contact Major Alvarez? If he – I mean, he was in charge of …”

“Major Alvarez is dead!” Jäger snapped. “So is almost every other man that was in your regiment. Don’t you get it? – they were being used as cannon-fodder, just as Franco’s poor sods are, to hold that pitiful excuse for a fortification line. The Allies” - he deliberatedly used this term “- are keeping their best troops in reserve for the time when they are prepared to go on the offensive again. You are, in fact, the three luckiest men in that regiment. But don’t push that luck … amigo.”

Franz von Jäger turned and walked away. Diego nodded courteously at the three, as if he showed the merest hint of sympathy. Then the lieutenant went after Jäger.

“Maybe I would rather have been at Laruns,” Miguel said, and stared into the small flickering, flames of their fire. It had begun raining again and the fire was soon extinguished.

Next episode:

While the Anti-Partisan Force is operating across the old border a new Soviet attack breaks through at Laruns and Jäger’s unit is caught behind enemy lines. But Jäger refuses to withdraw and instead sets about killing ‘Bolshevik sympathisers’ in the nearby villages. Javier and Miguel plan their defection, but the ailing Dominic cannot move fast enough to accompany them. And given the devastating force of the Soviet assault, perhaps it is already too late for second decisions anyway…